Trevor Cooney played his shortest outing of the conference season on Saturday, finishing on the bench despite the game against Pittsburgh being on the line.

After the game, Syracuse’s team trainer, Brad Pike, said the junior guard had a sprain in his back. Pike said it wasn’t from any one incident and was likely just a product of the grind of the season.

On Monday’s Atlantic Coast Conference coaches’ teleconference, SU head coach Jim Boeheim said Cooney is likely to play against No. 10 Notre Dame (24-4, 12-3 ACC) in the Orange’s (17-10, 8-6) 8 p.m. tipoff in South Bend, Indiana. Cooney’s back is sore, Boeheim said, but he did practice on Sunday and the head coach said he didn’t see any reason he wouldn’t be able to practice again.

Boeheim did say Cooney’s back was day-to-day, though.

Cooney’s 32 minutes were the fewest he’s played since Dec. 22, when Syracuse beat Colgate 78-43. He averages 37.6 minutes per game and is shooting 32.7 percent from 3 on the season.

He’s shot just 4-of-23 from beyond the arc in the past three games, though. Cooney has played 39.4 minutes per game since the Orange began conference play on Jan. 3. That’s equal to 98.5 percent of Syracuse’s minutes in conference play this season.

Last year against Notre Dame in the Carrier Dome, Cooney scored 33 points in 39 minutes, dropping in 11-of-15 from the field and 9-of-12 from 3-point range.